The game of baseball is one of the most popular sports in history, and its long list of happy young participants is a true testament of its enchantment. Similar to most sports, baseball players start out fairly young whether it's playing on a team or just having fun at a local park. The game has evolved throughout time thanks to its innovation, and this innovation comes in the form of baseball bats.

From its inception, this game started out with wooden bats. Wood bats are truly the essence of the sport as some of the greatest players in history are only known to have used wood. On the other hand, kids tend to struggle with wood bats from an early age. Reason being is that youth wood bats are heavier than most modern day metal bats. Another reason for the frustration is that if you improperly hit the ball with a wood bat, your hands will feel like they were stung by a colony of bees. When it's all said and done, wood bats progressively teaches the best mechanics for striking a baseball and this is why.

The Early Youth Baseball Days

The title says it all as modern day baseball uses mainly metal bats. The game itself has been around since the 1800s and wood bats were the only option. Since the game had no governing rules in place, players could use any size and shape of bat that was necessary. This included experimenting with bats that were short in length for heavy hitting, to long and slender, which resulted in a lighter faster swing.

Over the years, the governing committee would put restrictions on the bats from its length, to its barrel dimensions. Different types of wood used included hickory, maple wood, ash wood and bamboo. The 1970s brought in a new era. Aluminum bats were touted as more powerful, lighter, had a wider sweet spot and produced a higher performance. From then, until this point in time, aluminum/metal bats have dominated the scene in youth baseball.

Kids & Metal Bats

Metal bats are the weapon of choice for most kids today. Not only do they look super cool with crazy designs, but these bats are easier to work with since they have a much wider sweet spot and provides better overall grip. A lot of controversy over metal and youth wood bats came into play as metal bats were producing far better results. Injuries and mishaps skyrocketed as the new metal bats higher batted ball speeds. This resulted in numerous lawsuits between the manufacturers, sport regulation groups and safety watch organizations.

BBCOR came into play for bat testing, measurements of non-wood bats and ball exiting speeds. This was designed for safety measures, and for fair play among metal bat users. Here are the basics on BBCOR

Wood Bats Make Better Baseball Players

With all the advancement in baseball over the years and despite its controversy, youth wood bats make better players in the end. Why? These bats help develop the correct mechanics for swinging and this is why.

Weight will help the player become stronger

Hands, forearms and wrists gain strength

Develops a better hand-eye coordination because of its smaller sweet spot

Teaches players to properly use the hip & legs during the swing

Maximizes overall power for more consistent batting

“Stingers” make it obvious when the player misses the sweet spot

Produces better swinging motion to eventually decrease “stinging”

Though both bats have their place in the game, wood bats are the essence and the building blocks for a successful career.

The Answer to Young Players Swinging Wood With The Best Youth Bats

We believe strongly in youth players swinging wood and because we know that heavier wood bats keep kids away from swinging them we manufactured the ultimate You Pro – Big Barrel wood bat! This bat has a large barrel just like a youth metal bat would and it is light weight at -7 OZ! This is the best youth bat in the market as it allows younger players to transition easily from a metal bat to a wood bat. They can still swing it with power given its light weight, hit more balls with its large barrel, yet start to get the feel for wood.

We even created a Youth-Pro Little League wood bat with Little League approved regulation barrel size of 2 ¼ in. This bat is -9 oz! Truly unheard of in the wood bat world allowing the youngest of players to swing the bat easily and get the best out of playing with a wood bat.

If you want to train your young player to swing a heavier -3 oz wood bat with a regular barrel we have that too! We have Our Youth-Pro S271 model at the following lengths: 28’’, 29’’, and 30’’ all at minus 3 OZ.

We wanted to manufacture the absolute best youth wood bats. After 5 years of research and development we did just that! If you’re still reading this article its because you care! And since we care too we’re giving you $10 OFF all youth bats. Simply enter “YOUTHWOOD10” at checkout!